Political Prose: 'Operation Shutdown' comes in the nick of time

Saturday

Nov 22, 2008 at 12:01 AM

In the midst of our post-election doldrums came a welcomed gift last week: state Rep. Vince Biancucci’s voice mail message to callers telling them his Center Township office couldn’t help them anymore and referring them to state Rep.-elect Jim “Boy Wonder” Christiana’s personal cell phone.

Wow. Whom do we thank for such generosity? Biancucci? Christiana? The All-Seeing Political Gods Who Know When We Need Column Material Before Thanksgiving?

Now, we’re not going to rehash the whole controversy, although that could eat up an entire column and cut our workload in half. Hmmm. Nah. For once, we’ll take pride in our work.

Anyway, Biancucci got beat up pretty good by KDKA-AM’s Marty “Diggin’ Deep” Griffin after we broke the news of Operation Shutdown Tuesday, and he sounded really down when we talked to him later that day. But it wasn’t the media attention that Biancucci had the biggest problem with. No, it was Christiana.

Biancucci said he wasn’t doing anything differently than other incumbents who were faced with deadlines to empty their offices, except he had Christiana running to the media instead of returning his phone calls and resolving the dispute.

“Christiana’s got to understand one thing. The election’s over,” Biancucci said. “It’s time to become a representative now. Stop campaigning.”

That advice didn’t go over too well with an unapologetic Christiana, who called Biancucci’s deadline explanation “just an excuse” to close his office before his term ends Nov. 30. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get results,” Christiana said.

Is it too early to start hoping for a rematch between these guys in 2010?

SEEN & HEARD

FORGET ME NOT — “It’s about the only thing that he’s done that’s memorable,” one Droll County Insider remarked on Biancucci’s Operation Shutdown. Ouch.

ET TU, CENTER? — Out of more than 6,300 votes in Center, Biancucci’s center of power, he won by just 591 votes.

“Doesn’t he know what Center people do?” said a Big Name Democrat. “You could be their friend today and they’d cut your throat tomorrow.” Double ouch.

HOLY INBOX! — Christiana’s new email will be jchristi@pahousegop.com, so we suggested that they just leave off the “i” and make his e-mail name “jchrist.” Voters would definitely remember that, wouldn’t they?

QUACKED UP — Even though Democrat Jason Petrella says otherwise, we keep hearing that he lost the state Senate race because he listened too much to our favorite retiring state Sen. Gerald “Lame Duck” LaValle.

Several Political Know-It-Alls have said LaValle was calling the shots in Petrella’s campaign, and since it ended in a total debacle, we’re inclined to believe them. “Petrella fell into that Gerry LaValle trap,” K-I-A No. 1 said.

Speaking of Petrella, we’re told he’s called a few people to chew them out for not supporting him. Looking at the beating he took, he’s got a lot of chewing to do.

PRIVATE EYES, THEY’RE WATCHING YOU — Tim Potts, president of the watchdog group DemocracyRisingPa, is starting a program in January called “LocalEyes,” for which he’s recruiting residents in state House and Senate districts to keep tabs on legislators’ voting records and share the results on a Web site.